I am currently struggling to decide which university to attend. I am torn between University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and University of South Carolina-Columbia. USC would be in-state for me. I have at least $7500 a year scholarship to USC, but so far maybe only $5000 a year to Minnesota and it is out of state. UMN is my dream college and I’ve always wanted to go there. I’ve toured and I love it there. However, USC would be cheaper and I can’t decide if it would be worth it to go to UMN. I do plan on pursuing my masters and Ph.D. in economics after undergrad.
Which school should I attend?
Any website recommendations for scholarships I can get for an OOS college?
If you know that you are going to get a graduate degree, spend your money there as opposed to your undergraduate degree because that will have more of an impact on your ultimate job prospects.
gandalf: any PHD worth pursuing should come with a tuition waiver and a stipend. If OP can’t get that, then s/he has no business going for a PHD.
@GopherDog: Are those the only two universities you applied to? Were you selected for the Honors College at any of these two? What’s your parents’ budget (out of pocket - income+ savings) for your college? What subject do you intend to study and what classes had you had in it (or in related subjects) so far?
@MYOS1634: “any PHD worth pursuing should come with a tuition waiver and a stipend. If OP can’t get that, then s/he has no business going for a PHD.”
Depending on the school and/or program, graduate stipends/teaching assistantships are good for a certain number of years, and can’t be renewed after that; further, many grants are for one or two year, and renewal is not guaranteed. My stipend/grant/teaching assistantship ran out before I completed my Master’s degree; it happens. You can’t rely on the generosity of the university to cover all tuition and living expenses, every year.
Yes, but it’s your job as a graduate assistant not to over-run your stipend terms… and PHDs tend to be for 5 years (Terminal Masters stipends are more rare and stricter). I’m sorry this happened to you, but I don’t think it’s applicable to OP.
I didn’t mention it as some sort of ploy for sympathy, which I neither need nor want; merely to point out that an arrangement which might look good on paper doesn’t always work out in the real world for reasons that are either unanticipated or beyond your control. The OP mentioned the possibility of a getting a Master’s degree; and my point is that what you might think is a safe source of income in graduate school can turn out to be less than safe, which in turn is relevant to the cost of attendance.
OP is that scholarship figure from an “at least” letter and does it include Palmetto Fellow/Life scholarship. All in COA instate for USC is 23-24k so 7.5k in scholarships (final packages come out in March) leaves you with somewhere in neighborhood of 16k a year. Can UMN get close to that? Have your parents given you some parameters? When will you get financial offers from them? At a school that far away be sure you know what your travel expenses home will be to include in your calculations.